Our professional reviewers evaluate products and services independently, but Top Consumer Reviews may earn money when you click on the links on our pages. Learn more.

Realty Trac vs Foreclosure

To help you find the Best Foreclosure Listings, TopConsumerReviews.com provides you with an in-depth comparison of Realty Trac and Foreclosure.

To see ALL of our reviews for the Best Foreclosure Listings, please Click Here

What is the best way to find Foreclosure Listings? Generally speaking, it should be easy to find properties that are in foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, are bank-owned (REO) or maybe even available for short sale. Why? According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, 1 out of every 200 homes will eventually be foreclosed on with 250,000 families entering into foreclosure every 3 months.

Although the total number of homes in foreclosure now is still much lower than the mortgage crisis over a decade ago, there are still thousands of homeowners that find themselves unable to make their mortgage payments due to unemployment, divorce, or other reasons. Eventually, the lender forecloses on their home.

Foreclosure Listing Reviews

RealtyTrac was founded in 1996 and offers all types of Foreclosure Listings, including properties in pre-foreclosure, auctions, and bank-owned.

Like most subscription-based Foreclosure Listings services that offer a free trial, you'll need to enter your credit card information during the sign-up process. If you decide to keep your subscription beyond RealtyTrac's free 7-day trial period, you'll be billed $49.95 per month. If you decide to cancel your subscription, you may be given access as a "Free Member", with the ability to log in, save properties,
searches, and notes in the "Homes for Sale" channel, and limited access to their Stats & Trends section.

Once you've signed up for your account, you'll be taken to a helpful Getting Started page. Here, you'll find Tips for Beginners that show you how to use the site more effectively, like how to search for the right properties and save your searches for later use, how to save properties you're interested in, and so on. If you need more education on foreclosures, particularly with respect to laws in your state, you'll
find that in the Learn More section. Finally, if you want the help of a local realtor or need to get an idea of current mortgage rates in your area, those links are in the Next Steps section.

You can also find market information under the Stats & Trends tab. This is the place to click if you want information on market trends in the US, such as the number of foreclosures nationwide, or which states have the highest foreclosure rates.

When you're ready to search for Foreclosure Listings, you can enter a neighborhood, city, zip code or state into the search box, or go under the Search Homes tab. Keep in mind that RealtyTrac isn't limited strictly to Foreclosures, so you'll also find homes that are in pre-foreclosure, bank owned (REO), and that are listed as a traditional sale.

Once we entered our target area, we got a results list that could be sorted by date entered, number of beds/baths, square footage, price, and properties identified as "hot opportunities". We were surprised to see that the first 20+ listings were all sourced from another Foreclosure Listings service in our review, Auction. That left us wondering why we'd pay a monthly fee for RealtyTrac when Auction gives
people accounts at no charge.

On a positive note, we were impressed with the amount of information provided in each listing. For example, on one property that met our search criteria, we were able to see that while crime rates were low in the area, there were 15 criminal sex offenders located within a mile, and 8 environmental risks also within a mile. Further information showed us exactly how much had been paid in property taxes, the purchase
history, and much more. Those kinds of details can make or break a purchase, whether you're planning on living in a home or you're using it as part of an investment strategy.

RealtyTrac enjoys an "A+" rating and accreditation with the Better Business Bureau. That's a good sign for a business in the Foreclosure Listings industry.

Overall, RealtyTrac offers good value for what you pay, especially with the level of detail the service provides on each property listing.

Foreclosure is one of the longest-running Foreclosure Listings services on the market, having started in 1999 with the vision of providing up-to-date property listings nationwide. Their database is updated as often as twice daily, ensuring that you have access to the most current listings available.

Each property listed on Foreclosure comes with the following information:

Property details: type of property, address, size of the lot and home, number of bedrooms/baths, and any available photographs

Foreclosure gives you a 7-day free trial, so that you can take a look what they offer. You can cancel within those 7 days at no cost, or you can opt to continue your membership as a paid subscription for $39.80/month. That's less expensive than many competitor sites.

We recommend that you keep a close eye on the credit card you choose to use when signing up for your free trial. First, you'll need to be sure to cancel your account within 7 days if you decide not to use the service for $39.80/month. We found reviews from several users who cancelled within the 7-day period, but decided to log back into their account a few weeks (or even months) later. Apparently, the fine print says
that logging into your account gives Foreclosure permission to activate your monthly membership. We also saw comments from users that said their credit card was compromised after using it on the Foreclosure site.

Surprisingly, however, Foreclosure still had an "A+" rating with the Better Business Bureau at the time of our most recent visit. That indicates that even if there are issues with their billing practices (especially things not clearly disclosed but rather hidden in the fine print), they've done a good job of responding to issues and taking care of them to the BBB's satisfaction.

Given that Foreclosure claims to be the internet's best Foreclosure Listings site, we would have expected to see many more resources for prospective customers. The top-ranked services in our review usually include extensive articles and even videos that explain the process and help investors and buyers navigate that often-complicated steps required to purchase a foreclosed property. The Foreclosure site has a few
articles and an FAQ, but not much more.

Overall, Foreclosure's services earn a 3-star rating: we appreciate their good record with the BBB and their free trial, but what they offer isn't quite as robust as the highest-ranked Foreclosure Listings providers we evaluated.

At the same time, this can be a huge opportunity for people looking to start or expand their investment portfolio by getting properties well below market cost, or to buy a home for themselves at a significant discount. Plus, the original homeowner may be able to avoid bankruptcy or other negative financial consequences through your purchase of their home, even at a reduced cost.

It's important to realize that many homes purchased as a foreclosure are sold as-is, so budgeting for things like repairs or replacing appliances is key. Another factor to keep in mind is that it may take longer to close on a foreclosed property than in a traditional home sale. If the property is bank owned, the bank may not be as motivated to cut a quick deal or close quickly. And, there can also be
a legal component to getting the current residents to vacate the property before you can take occupancy.

Once you're ready to find a foreclosed property, where should you look? There are several services that provide Foreclosure Listings, doing all the legwork of searching databases and other sources of information to give you the details on the properties in your target area.

When deciding which Foreclosure Listing provider to use, keep these criteria in mind:

Cost. While some Foreclosure Listings are provided free of charge, this may only be for a short trial period before you're charged a monthly subscription fee.

Data Quality. Choose a service that updates its Foreclosure Listings frequently. It'll do you no good to get listings of properties that are no longer on the market. Also consider how much information you get in a listing: most services include the number of beds/baths and square footage at a bare minimum, while the best services include detailed information about the neighborhood, previous
sales of the home, etc.

Reputation. What do others say about using the Foreclosure Listings they've found on the site? Is the service rated by the Better Business Bureau?

Ease of Use. Can you easily find what you want on the site and in each of the Foreclosure Listings? Does the site make it simple to get through the steps of buying and/or bidding on a foreclosed property?

TopConsumerReviews.com has reviewed and ranked the best Foreclosure Listings available today. We hope this information helps you in your real estate goals, whether you're buying a home for yourself or adding to your investment portfolio!